Around

The reversal of fortune in U.S. natural gas and oil reserves has improved energy security and given the country more leverage around the world, President Obama’s National Security Advisor Tom Donilon said Wednesday.

In a reversal not seen for a number of months, North Dakota oil/natural gas officials on Friday reported a decline in month-over-month production for both oil and gas in January, and some of the sour weather conditions attributed to the drop may keep production down well into May, according to Lynn Helms, director of the state Department of Mineral Resources (DMR).

Geisinger Health System has been awarded a $1 million grant from the Degenstein Foundation to help complete a study on the health impacts from Marcellus Shale gas drilling, a report eagerly anticipated by officials in at least two states.

Barclays Bank plc and a quartet of its traders manipulated the electricity markets in and around California for a two-year period beginning in 2006 and should be assessed an “unprecedented” penalty under the Federal Power Act, according to a filing by FERC staff.

Barclays Bank plc and a quartet of its traders manipulated the electricity markets in and around California for a two-year period beginning in 2006 and should be assessed an “unprecedented” penalty under the Federal Power Act, according to a filing by FERC staff.

Magnum Hunter Resources Corp. intends to drill at least four Utica Shale test wells in Ohio this year, the Houston-based independent exploration and production company said Tuesday.

Higher natural gas and oil resource estimates should continue through 2013 for several onshore unconventional areas, especially in “pockets of the Permian Basin,” the Niobrara formation, as well as the Eagle Ford and “super-rich” Marcellus and Utica shales, according to Credit Suisse.

Chevron Corp. is directing about $7.5 billion for U.S. upstream projects in 2013, with most of the focus on deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM) projects, the producer said.

An Encana Corp. official on Thursday once again urged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to withdraw a year-old draft report of groundwater samples near natural gas drilling sites in Pavillion, WY, saying the report was “sloppy” and had led to a “misguided response.”